


Variance

by prairiecrow



Series: Geometry [16]
Category: Knight Rider (1982), Torchwood
Genre: Alien Culture, Clothing Kink, Established Relationship, Fantasy of Rough Sex, Immortal Lovers, Immortality, Jack Has a Plan, Kink Negotiation, M/M, Open Relationships, Pansexual Character, Possible Sex Change, Recovered Memories, Shapeshifting, Trans-Dimensional Travel, men in skirts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-07 14:08:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1901895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>KITT is gradually regaining his memories of what and who he was before winding up in Torchwood's dimension, and the latest revelation promises wonderful things as far as Jack is concerned — but of course, there's a catch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Variance

**Author's Note:**

> KITT's face and figure:
> 
> http://emorawr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/jared-leto-shirtless.jpg
> 
> And KITT's uniform in the Mechan/Human War universe:
> 
> http://www.fantasmagoria.eu/images/uploader/sc/564x752.g/scorpio-jacket-coat-9.jpg

Jack hadn't said as much to his Torchwood teammates, but the truth was that his first reaction to a chance to get off of twentieth century Earth had been: _Finally!_ The homeworld of humankind was a dirty gem of a planet, seething with life and love and conflict and death, and its beauty could reduce him to tears, but it was also so _limited_ , a snake devouring its own tail as it spun through the void of Eternity. He loved the Earth he'd devoted himself to protecting for over a hundred and fifty years, no question about that —

— but he was honestly glad that it was now far behind him, whole dimensions away from the long sunlit greenhouse where he currently stood, part of the grounds of a palace on an alien planet in the heart of the Mechan Coalition's small collection of hard-won star systems. Jiara IV bore superficial resemblances to Terra III — it had a blue sky, trees, grass, flowers, insects — but the colours and shapes were new to Jack, and the scents that rode the mild winter winds stirred him to exhilaration with their novelty. Take the snowflower, for instance: small, trumpet-shaped, a flare of bright scarlet ribbed with gold, it flourished everywhere and filled the air around it with the faint musical chimes of its metallic inner structures whenever a stray breeze stirred its narrow serrated purple leaves. It was unique to Jiara IV, and so well loved that someone had seen fit to plant it even here, in a greenhouse devoted to more exotic off-world species. 

Their delicate music whispered beneath the warm bright stillness. Jack found the snowflower a delightful thing, exquisite in its daintiness, but this planet possessed something else far rarer and, to him, infinitely more beautiful. As he stood studying a trellis of obviously carnivorous vines, amusing himself by triggering their snap reflex with a quick and careful forefinger, he heard the soft hiss of the inner door opening, immediately followed by a crisp brisk voice: "Thank you for coming on such short notice! I know you're due to leave for Norrissa in twenty-three minutes, but —"

Smiling, he turned to face KITT, who was striding toward him down the greenhouse's wide central walkway. "It can wait. And if worst comes to worst, Gwen and Tosh can go on without me."

KITT shook his head impatiently, coming to a halt about five feet away and shifting into an attitude of parade rest. He looked harried, the circlets of light in his eyes fluctuating with agitation, but blade-slim and gorgeous as ever in his Coalition dress uniform. Jack had no idea who'd decided that the Black General should dress appropriately in a flowing ebony coat of velvet suede, painted-on leather pants, gleaming military boots and a skin-tight turtleneck secured with the coat's straps across the chest, but if he ever met them he was going to give them the thank-you blowjob to end all thank-you blowjobs: the first time he'd seen KITT wearing this outfit he'd been almost overcome with the urge to peel it off him and lick every inch of skin underneath, and eleven days of exposure hadn't significantly diminished the impulse. "You've been looking forward to this trip for the past week! Don't worry, I won't keep you long — it's just…"

Jack gave him a beat to finish the sentence before remarking: "Must be something big, if it's got _you_ lost for words. What's up?"

KITT hesitated again, his posture unyielding. "It may be nothing. On the other hand…" He visibly steeled himself. "Well, see for yourself."

To Jack's surprise, he turned away, presenting his stiff back… and the gleam of his short blond hair, artfully coiffed. As Jack watched, light rippled along those golden spikes… but there was no breeze, and the hair wasn't just shifting: it was lengthening, extending into wavy tendrils that flowed swiftly down over those black-clad shoulders. It was a thing utterly unexpected — but, after a second's consideration, not surprising. After all, KITT's body was over sixty percent nanites by volume, and those nanites were capable of reconstructing his entire physical structure from a bare metal skeleton within ten minutes: why shouldn't they also be able to adjust the length of his hair, if he so desired? 

"Wow," Jack remarked when the tips stopped somewhere south of KITT's shoulderblades, "that's… impressive."

"Then wait until you get a load of this," KITT retorted, turning to face his lover again, and before Jack's eyes his skin tone started to change hue and tone: from pale to ochre, rapidly shading to mahogany all the way through to lustrous ebony. Through it all his eyes remained constant, their liquid blackness enlivened by rapidly fluctuating circlets of crimson light. 

He gave Jack another couple of seconds to contemplate the change before asking, with barely concealed nervousness: "Well?"

The urge to run his fingers through that fall of gold was compelling, but he refrained — for the moment — in favour of taking in the whole picture. "Even better," he said fervently, because visions of that bright silken fall of hair and all that smooth blackness, naked under his hands… his heart rate kicked up a notch, his cock beginning to lift and lengthen in the confines of his briefs. "Is this a new talent? Or something you just never showed me before?"

KITT tossed his head just enough to flip the hair back off his forehead; as it fell back into place, it turned as inky as his skin. "The program was always there, but dormant, like so much of my memory archive. The Miner retrieved it, dusted it off, and reestablished it in my active functional matrix."

"It's…" He stepped forward, stretching out his right hand, and laid it to KITT's left cheek: same smooth texture, same ambient temperature. He traced those midnight black lips with his thumb, marvelling: in this form, in his uniform, KITT was like a slice of the night between the stars made manifest. "This could take a bit of getting used to. Not that I'm complaining!" he hastened to add, with a little wondering laugh. "God, no!"

A relieved smile curved KITT's thin-lipped mouth, revealing a narrow flash of white teeth. His tone, however, was wry: "It should be sufficient to hold your interest for a few more decades, at any rate…"

Jack bit back an impatient denial: he knew that expression, carved from darkness though it was, and KITT would not respond well to being scolded for mistaken pessimistic assumptions. Instead he stepped in even closer, took KITT's face between his hands (thrilling, he had to admit, to the sleek fall of hair over his fingers, cool as moonlit water), and looked directly into those bright inhuman eyes while speaking slowly and deliberately. "No — that's not what this is about! _I gave you my Name._ Which means I'm in this for the long haul, no matter _what_ you look like."

KITT searched his face intently. "Humans thrive on a diet of novelty. You'll grow bored with me eventually, even if I regain the ability to change every aspect of my appearance."

"Maybe I will," Jack allowed. KITT dropped his gaze, bowing his head, but Jack took the android's pointed chin in his right thumb and forefinger and tugged it upward again, coaxing: "Look at me." After a moment KITT obeyed, and Jack rewarded him with a smile. "Which is why we'll be spending time apart — a decade here, a half-century there. You'll probably get pretty tired of me too —"

"I sincerely doubt that," KITT sniffed. "I'm not programmed to —"

"You've done a lot of things you were never programmed to do." Jack drew a steadying breath, refocussed, and got back on track: "The point is, absence makes the heart grow fonder and a rest is as good as a change." He shifted his hands to KITT's shoulders, applying warm reassuring pressure. "We'll take vacations, and when we get back together it'll be like rediscovering each other all over again."

"Over the course of a thousand years," KITT said with a dubious quirk of one eyebrow. "Or a hundred thousand. Or a million."

Jack stiffened his spine against the sinking sensation in the vicinity of his heart. "If you're telling me you don't want to —"

"I never said that," KITT snapped. "And I never would. You said it yourself: once I commit myself, I honour my obligations." His icy expression maintained itself only a second longer; then it thawed fractionally, and he raised his ebony hand to press it to Jack's cheek. "Jack… I'll be yours for as long as you'll have me, or as long as circumstances permit, at any rate. And I'll maintain whatever form you desire, when it's just between the two of us."

The _as long as circumstances permit_ part was new, and Jack's danger sense started to tingle — but KITT had offered a valuable concession, and he didn't bother the hide the relief that fuelled his grin. "Even if I decide I prefer you in purple?"

KITT wrinkled his nose fussily. "I wouldn't go quite that far… but would you settle for me changing sex?"

Which prompted a blink. "You can do that?"

"The Miner tells me I can — it's just part of a programming module they haven't reactivated yet." His smile was as bittersweet as it was sly. "This certainly opens up whole new sets of possibilities, doesn't it?"

"No kidding!" More serious now, he cocked his head and eyed KITT's whole slender body, up and down. "Somehow I have a hard time picturing you as a girl."

"You and me both," KITT grumbled. "But the Miner has no reason to lie to me. Quite the opposite, in fact."

Jack gave him a crooked smile. "Y'know, it'll be worth it to see you in a dress…"

One eyebrow elevated. "Why? Is that something you've been yearning for?"

A shrug that didn't cancel out the intensity of his gaze. "Maybe."

KITT shook his head in smiling disbelief. "Incredible!"

"What?" Jack protested. "You've got the legs for it, and skirts make some things a helluva lot easier!"

"Of course they do," KITT agreed indulgently. "In which case, you must love this era's fashions, with half-skirts for men who fancy them."

"Yeah," Jack said scornfully, "and pants underneath! Which cancels out the whole point of the skirt."

"Hm." Still smiling, KITT leaned in and slightly up to kiss him without haste; when their lips melted apart the mischievous expression on his face was unmistakable in spite of the extra pigment. "Well, I'm scheduled to go through my old wardrobe this evening — with any luck, there'll be some offerings in there that will put a definite spring in your step."

Jack brightened dramatically. "Yeah?"

KITT stepped back… but one hand remained on Jack's waist, trailing around and down to briefly caress his hip as KITT stepped past him, heading toward the greenhouse's far exit. The glance the android cast over his shoulder as he phased back to his default palette (leaving his hair provocatively long, Jack couldn't help but note) was openly flirtatious. "Captain, really… do I need to remind you that for seven years I was the most skilled courtesan-spy in the Coalition?" He paused to lean briefly closer, his voice falling to an intimate whisper: "I'm sure there'll be articles in those closets capable of making even _you_ blush."

"I'll take the early train back," Jack decided instantly, and watched KITT walk away with a smug sway to those slim hips that made it nearly impossible not to run after the android and pounce, dragging them both down for a lusty roll and tussle amidst the exotic flowers, their mouths ravenous and golden hair tangled in Jack's hungry fingers... But he refrained, and KITT departed, leaving him to contemplate exactly what circumstances were in play behind those lively mechanical eyes — and why KITT would doubt for a single solitary instant that they'd be facing the future as a team, no matter what. 

THE END


End file.
